The good news is - CompleteProject just got a lot better! This is a big release with lots of fixes and updates. Normally, we try to release a new version every two to four weeks, but the changes in this release were a bit "all or nothing" and took a bit longer. ...but it was worth it!
The change list for this release is:
- Improved application startup time.
- Upgraded to .Net 3.5
- Added support for SMTP.
- Updated installer to support faster load times.
- Fixed issue with empty label positioning after resizing.
- Modified title bar to use Aero interface in Windows Vista.
- Upgraded 3rd party controls.
- Updated auto-installer to better support the roll out of new features.
- Fixed issue with application shutdown failure when synchronization is in progress.
- Removed ClipIt from installation.
- Fixed issue with null email body.
- Improved startup logging.
- Properties are now synchronized across machines (where applicable).
- Fixed bug with "reset default" in properties settings.
- Fixed issue with assigning an item to yourself.
- Fixed an issue with displaying task statuses.
- Lots and lots of minor bug fixes.
I just want to pick-up on the first three changes as these will be the most likely to impact you.
3x faster application startup time
This is a noticeable difference. Significantly faster startup times.
We achieved this not by modifying the code, but by modifying the installer. It's a bit complicated, but basically the installer now runs a program after installation which will optomize our code for your machine. Because of this, you may not notice the performance improvements the first time you startup the new version, but should see the improvements in subsequent startups.
Upgraded to .Net 3.5 sp1
CompleteProject has been a .Net 2.0 program from day one. We heart .Net 2.0. But, version 2.0 is about 6 years old now. In technology land - that's old. Our upgrade puts us on 3.5 which is about 4 years old. That is still old, but honestly, that is how we like it. The bugs have been worked out and you are much more likely to have it installed on your machine without having to download additional files.
There is a downside to this change. The old autoupdate functionality in CompleteProject will not work. To get the latest version of CompleteProject, you will need to redownload it from our website. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Send Email directly from CompleteProject
This version adds support for SMTP which is the internet protocol for sending email messages. In English, that means you can now send email directly from CompleteProject without opening a separate email client:
CompleteProject's email capabilities are still pretty limited. We are not going to replace Microsoft Outlook anytime soon. However, the fact that every project and task has it's own email address is a key feature in CompleteProject and one that we are seeing more and more customers take advantage of. That's awesome because there is a lot of things we can do to improve on integrating task workflow with email workflow. Being able to send an email from the program is just a first step in the right direction.
Phew! It is nice to get this one out the door. :-)
posted @ Monday, January 09, 2012 6:29 AM |
Almost up to version 1.0! :-)
We have released a new version of CompleteProject today with a few small enhancements, but mostly focusing on stability. This month's release has the following bug fixes and enhancements:
- Fixed issue with task refresh on GUI.
- Updated search indexing code to use a more efficient provider.
- Fixed issue with attaching directories.
- Fixed issue with attaching web links.
- Improved deadlock monitoring code for better exception reporting.
- Add project descriptions to Gantt chart.
- Removed ability for projects to be recurring. It doesn't make sense.
- Fixed issue with selecting a project after drag-drop re-ordering.
- Modified drag drop re-ordering on project view. Rather then swapping order, items are now moved positionally (first, second, etc...).
- Modified Gantt chart sorting. If two items have the same date, the default is to sort by item position (set on Project View).
- Minor bug fixes.
There are a few enhancements worth highlighting. First, the way in which tasks in the Project View are ordered via drag / drop has changed. It use to be that items were "swapped" once dropped. Now, items will be moved into the drop position. For example, if you have three items 1, 2, 3 and you drop 3 over 1, your new list would be 3,1,2. Previously the list would be 3.2.1. ...so I think the new ordering is a bit more intuitive.
Second, we have added project descriptions to the gantt chart. This is helpful when you have a list of subprojects and you want to quickly know which project you are looking at. The new gantt chart looks like...
Also, there is currently a pending issue with setting a recurring task. This is a critical bug so we should get a release out to fix this in the next week. [Edit: This issue is resolved in version 0.9.27.11306 released 2 Nov 2011. Version 0.9.27 contains only this fix.]
We will continue to work on stability issues in the near term, but are definitely getting close to our version one release and out of beta!
Toby
posted @ Monday, October 31, 2011 8:05 PM |
Stability. Stability. Stability. This month's update fixes a lot of issues with CompleteProject - several of which resulted in application crashes. A few of the fixes are related to user experience issues like CompleteProject moving the selected task after an update.
Stability is obviously key for a program like CompleteProject. We are working on it and will remain focused on application stability for the next few releases.
The complete list of fixes available in this release:
- Fixed issue with the calendar not displaying event subjects after a reboot.
- Fixed issue the the calendar not showing the time ruler after a new calendar entry is added.
- Fixed issue with application crash when setting a default attachment directory.
- Fixed issue with application crashing when tracking active time.
- Fixed issue with notes being lost occasionally when program synchronizes.
- Fixed issue which caused a program crash if dates were not set properly.
- Fixed issue with selected item changing after data update.
- Fixed issue which caused an application crash when downloading files to a missing directory.
- Fixed issue with time tracking which was causing an application crash.
- Improved threading synchronization diagnostics.
- Fixed a threading issue which can occur during synchronization to cause an application crash.
- Fixed issue in reporting where querying an empty data set caused an application crash.
- Upgraded visual components.
- Minor bug fixes.
Check it out and let us know what you think!
Toby
posted @ Sunday, September 11, 2011 6:11 PM |
The latest version of CompleteProject is out. Version 0.7.293 contains the following bug fixes and enhancements:
- Modified gantt chart to remove "hour" view.
- Modified gantt chart to add red line for "today".
- Modified gantt chart to optionally add color when showing project timelines.
- Modified gantt chart to show optional folder icons.
- Added "expand all" and "collapse all" commands to right click actions for the project tree.
- Fixed issue with time tracking which was causing application to crash.
- Fixed issue in application settings which was not checking default directory correctly.
- Minor bug fixes.
This month we have focused mostly on improving the Gantt chart user experience based on user feedback. Rianda in the user forums suggested that when a custom folder icon is used we use the same custom folder icon in the Gantt chart. Obviously, this makes a lot of sense as the purpose of the custom folder icons is to help you quickly scan through your tasks. So we updated the Gantt chart to allow the use of custom folders:
Notice that we also updated the Project Item in the gantt chart to include the color of the custom folder (where applicable). It certainly makes the Gantt chart look more exciting! :-) Of course, this is also a really powerful feature - using color to convey information about the current state or purpose of a given project.
The other bit change is that we have added context menu options to expand all folders in your task list:
One of the problems with using folders to store data is that it can make it difficult to find what you are looking for if it is "hidden" in a folder. The ability to expand all folders easilly is a great idea which will hopefully make it a bit easier to find what you are looking for.
That is it for this month. Enjoy!
Toby
posted @ Sunday, July 31, 2011 7:47 PM |
The latest version of CompleteProject is out and contains a ton of fixes and improvements.
- Fixed issue with user registration process effecting users who purchase after account expiry.
- Fixed issue with synchronizing user information.
- Updated links to work with new website.
- Removed holidays from the application.
- Enhanced login / registration screen with minor updates.
- Fixed issue with application showing "Expired" after registration.
- Added code to make it easier to detect threading deadlocks.
- Fixed issue with attachments not appearing in delegated tasks.
- Users can now add attachements and create subtasks to projects they do not own.
- Fixed issue with program displaying error messages on registration.
- Minor bug fixes.
For the first time in CompleteProject history, we have removed a feature in this release. Prior releases allowed users to keep track of their holidays and automatically accounted for holidays when scheduling. Unfortunately, we started to have technical problems with this code when we moved into a distributed environment. Rather then try and address the problems now when there is so many other high return activities to work on - we decided to scrap the feature for now and come back to it later. Please let me know if the comments if you think this will be an issue for you.
Another important changes is that CompleteProject now allows users with read-only access on a project to add attachments, and create sub projects and tasks. At first, this seems a little counter-intuitive. After all, "Read-Only" generally means the user cannot write to the project at all. That's true. But our goal with CompleteProject is to create a system which is easy to use. Bottom line: having multiple types of permission can confuse users. ...we want less of that.
As always, have a look at the latest and greatest and let us know what you think!
Cheers,
Toby
posted @ Sunday, July 03, 2011 11:02 PM |
This is just a quick update to let you know that we have released a new version of CompleteProject - version 0.7.187. This version contains a critical bug fix to support task delegation as well as some minor bug fixes.
Enjoy!
Toby
posted @ Sunday, June 12, 2011 9:17 PM |
Latest version of CompleteProject is out. There are no hugely important changes this week, but there are a lot of bug fixes. In general, this will be what to expect for the next few months. We are really focused on product stability / quality in the run-up to the first release and as a result will probably not be adding many features until the product is extremely stable.
This week's release includes the following fixes:
- TaskList were not automatically updating based on changes to project tree.
- Projects were showing up as "Due" in the calendar. Only task should show up as due.
- Fixed selection issue when adding an item to the task list.
- Major changes to the way attachments are handled.
- Several bug fixes in account management.
- Fixed selection issue when selecting a task or project after adding attachments.
- Minor tweaks to registration. There is an outstanding issue for some users.
- Issue with account information not displaying correctly (storage used).
As always - check out the latest version and let us know what you think!
Cheers,
Toby
posted @ Monday, May 30, 2011 9:25 PM |
We have just released the latest version of CompleteProject - version 0.7.71.
The latest version includes the following fixes and updates:
- Added drag / drop capabilities to gantt chart.
- Fixed issue with recurrences which caused a system crash.
- Fixed issue with AutoUpdate service failing on install. Install now requires administrator permissions.
- Modified login and registration forms for a better user experience.
- Fixed validation issue for new passwords. Symbols are now allowed in passwords.
- Minor bug fixes.
By far, the biggest change in this update is the ability to work with the Gantt chart via drag-drop operations. Thanks Rianda!
The CompleteProject Gantt Chart now supports three drag-drop operations.
Operation 1. You can now increase amount of time needed to complete a task by hovering over the right edge of the task until the cursor goes to a horizontal double arrow.
Then move the mouse horizontally to change the amount of time needed to complete the task. Dependent tasks will be updated once the operation is complete.
Operation 2. You can now change the start date of a task by hovering over the left edge of a task until the cursor changes to a four way direction arrow.
Then move the mouse horizontally to change the start date of the task. Dependent tasks will be updated once the operation is complete.
Operation 3. You can now create task dependencies by hovering over the left edge of a task until the cursor changes to a four way direction arrow. Then move the move directly to the dependent task. The cursor will change to a vertical double arrow.
All and all - not a lot of code changes this week. Most of our focus in on reworking the website. Hopefully we will have those changes out the door in the next few weeks.
That about does it for this week. Give it a download and let us know what you think!
Toby
posted @ Saturday, April 30, 2011 9:19 PM |
Phew! That was painful. :-)
CompleteProject version 0.7.2 is finally here! The application has been under intense development over the last four months and has essentially been rewritten to correct some of the fundamental software architecture issues we discovered during our first round of beta testing. In particular, the application synchronization code was not consolidated to a central point in the application and we also were not refreshing the screen properly.
1. The application will no longer have a free version. CompleteProject is now available for free for a 30 day trial period. All existing users will be given a free license.
2. The application no longer supports "private" notes. Notes are shared just like tasks and projects. This change has been a long time coming and you have probably seen the in-application reminders.
Also, you should find the new version of
CompleteProject performs much better and overall program stability has been improved. From our perspective, the new application is much cleaner and easier to support over the long term. As mentioned in
previous posts, the work over the last 4 months was all about getting the right foundations in place so we can continue to build on
CompleteProject right through to version 10!
What's next? CompleteProject is currently in "stealth" beta. What we mean by that is that we are trying to release the product very quietly to a handful of users. Over the next six weeks, we will continue to look at the product and improve quality in preparation for a full beta release where we start actively marketing the product.
In the meantime, download and enjoy! :-)
Toby
posted @ Wednesday, April 06, 2011 6:40 AM |